Tuesday, 9 February 2010

The Cairns Regional Council will spend $22,000 on "an experiment" by planting four trees according to a Silva Cell tree root management system.

The plan is to nurture shady street trees that will allow large trees to thrive side by side with maximum car park spaces, under a trial as part of a future plan for cool parking in the city heart.

The four trees under the trial are on Hartley St, between Grafton and Lake, and will commence next week.

"The tree root management system is an underground cellular structure designed to carry traffic loads while providing uncompacted area for tree roots to grow," Council's manager of Infrastructure Management, Stephen Tyter says.

“The purpose of installing the system will be to allow large trees to grow providing large trees that offer shade in the Cairns CBD without reducing available parking,” Tyter said.

Tyter says that normally root systems of large trees require the same space as two or more parking bays, but with the installation of this system, large trees will be able to thrive as the root system is protected from compaction and surrounding infrastructure will be saved from tree root invasion.”

The Silva Cell system consists of underground modular framework with structural standards that allow it to support loads of up to 20 tonnes.

“The system provides the tree with access to a suitable volume of uncompacted soil which is critical in growing large functional trees in urban settings and will add perhaps twenty years to an average tree’s longevity,” Stephen Tyter says.

Council says that planning for large shady trees in the centre of a city is designed to reduce heat in the urban environment which can lead to reduction in air conditioning subsequently saving energy costs.

What an amazing revelation. Why don't they start by digging up the concrete in City Place and pop in a few of these trees?

Happy to invest in a way to increase the numbers of big trees in town. This system is more about street trees than mall trees. I can't wait to see the centre parking in town nicely shaded - and that bitumen frying pan outside the Lagoon. Maybe Stockland, Raintrees, TAFE, JCU, etc can use this system too so we can park under the trees instead of spending even more on fake shade. May also help at Endeavour park where the shade trees can't be too close to the playing fields and so there is nothing in the middle of the grounds for the central fields

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